Spindle drafting apparatus for textile fibers



Aug. 9, 1966 H, T. HEATHCOTE 3,264,811

SPINDLE DRAFTING APPARATUS FOR TEXTILE FIBERS Filed May 27, 1964 INVENTOR.

HAROLD T. HEATHCOTE 4 \W O G &@ j //K F M 4 9 a J fla 77. 3 a G 66M ,OQ/QQ/J 2 V 2 M ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,264,811 SPINDLE' DRAFTlNG APPARATUS FOR TEXTILE FIBERS Harold T. Heathcote, Pawtucket, RI. (Rte. 102 and Central Pike, North Scituate, RJ.) Filed May 27, 1964, Ser. No. 370,531 4 Claims. (Cl. 57-51) This invention relates to the applying of a long draft to a spinning machine of the type used for textile fibers and particularly woolen yarn and is a continuation-in-part of my application, Serial No. 198,781, filed May 31, 1962, now abandoned.

Heretofore, in the spindle drafting of woolen yarn, a spinning frame has been utilized in whichv a draft occurred between roving feed rolls and a pair of delivery rolls with a revolving spindle drafting twister head located between the feed and delivery rolls. This twister head put in false twist and served to provide a leveling action of the yarn to reduce the thicker places thereof. This occurred by reason of the false twist running into the thinner places of the yarn and there binding the fibers so that they would have greater resistance to attenuation than the thicker places where less twist occurred. An apparatus of the above character is shown in Patent No. 1,973,534 although the drafting action is not there described. The drafting action is somewhat described in Patent No. 2,972,853; the movement of the yarns there shown in Patent No. 983,641; and the leveling action is described in Patent No. 2,291,819. There also had occurred a drafting, followed by twist with no draft (but no draft and leveling), and then another drafting, such as shown in Patent Nos. 1,702,969 and 2,206,242. In all of this prior art above referred to, after a leveling action of the yarn occurred and the yarn emerged from the delivery rolls, no further drafting occurred and the yarn was packaged.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide in one machine, spindle drafting combined with roller drafting into which may be put a heavier woolen roving while the end product may be the same, thus increasing the ratio of draft by means of combining present spindle drafting with roller drafting.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine which will produce the same amount of the same count of yarn from increased bulk or heavier weight roving from a card, when fed to drafting apparatus.

Another object of the invention is the saving of investment in woolen cards by reason of the spinning machine being altered in the form to be described herein of doing the work of a larger number of cards which have heretofore been used to produce finer roving to produce the same resultant yarn count.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of a certain novel process or features of construction as will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view through one side of a woolen drafting apparatus having a twister head and illustrating somewhat diagrammatically my improvement;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view on a somewhat larger scale of the mounting of the rolls showing a different position of the parts;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the spring mounting means for the saddle;

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic end view of a drive of the lower rolls to show a different surface speed relation between the rolls; and

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic view of the travel of the work.

as a delivered weight.

3264,81 1 Patented August 9, 1966 In proceeding with this invention, instead of using the two spaced lower rolls driven at the same surface speed with a single roll contacting both of these as shown in the above Patent 1,973,534, I have rearranged the lower rolls to have an increased spacing from each other and provided a top roll for each of these lower rolls and have rotated the more advanced lower roll at a surface speed substantially twice that of the first contacted lower roll so that a draft will occur between these spaced pairs of rolls which will be in addition to the draft between the lower rolls and the roving feed rolls through a twister head, which has heretofore been a relatively small amount. Heretofore, in the preparation of woolen yarn by a spindle drafting method as distinguished from a mule spinning drafting method, roving has been drawn from a supply with false twist placed in the roving, which false twist assisted in providing a levelling action resulting in a somewhat small amount of elongation which may be referred to as draft, about 10% or more, which occurs between the roving feed rolls and the yarn delivery rolls, and more particularly between the feed rolls and a hollow spindle or twister head having knobs thereon. Thus, it will be apparent that within the 10% range, there is roving of substantially the same weight (yards per pound of yarn) put into the machine as is taken out of the machine in yarn form, the difference being perhaps in the order of 1,376 yards per pound put into the machine whereas 1,640 yards are taken out of the machine, thus giving a ratio of about put in with relation to what is taken out.

In proceeding with this invention, 1 utilize a roller draft just below the twister head in the order of 2 to 1, thus enabling much heavier roving such, for instance, as in the order of 738 yards per pound to be supplied into the machine while I may obtain 1,640 yards per pound Thus, roving substantially twice as heavy may be put into this machine while delivering the same size yarn therefrom. This enables the machine to handle twice as much bulk of roving with the same yarn result (number) as heretofore.

With reference to the drawings, 10 designates the mounting beam which is secured to the frame or sampson 11 of a spinning frame having a top beam 12 also running lengthwise of the apparatus. Upon this top beam there is mounted a bracket 13 in which there is located a twister head 14 driven by belt 15 from some suitable drum extending through the center of the frame.

This twister head has a pair of jaws, one 65 being fixed while the other jaw 66 is movable toward the fixed jaw. This movement of jaw 66 is caused by a lever 67 which swings due to centrifugal force to move jaw 66 toward jaw 65 and apply pressure on the yarn passing between the two jaws sufliicient to apply a grip so that twist will be put in between this twister head and the nip of the rolls at either side of the twister head. Also the leveling action occurs between the feed rolls 64 and the twister head by jerking action of the knobs 68 of the twister head which results in the small elongation above referred to as is known to occur in the construction shown in the above mentioned Patent 1,973,534.

Drafting rollers designated generally 16 are mounted on a roll stand 17 which is secured to the beam 10. This roll stand extends upwardly from the beam 10, providing a first bearing 18 for the reduced portion 19 of one lower roll 20 and a second bearing 21 for the reduced portion 22 of the second lower roll 23. These rolls 20, 23 are metal rolls fluted at the intervals where they contact the yarn and are interlocked lengthwise. This second bearing 21 is adjustable with reference to the first bearing 18 by means of threaded stud 24 and nut 25.

' The top rolls are mounted by an arm 32 which extends between the lower rolls and 23 at the location of their bearings. The arm 32 has spaced plates 33 between which there is a solid block 34 through which a bolt 35 extends at the supporting end into a bar 36 of the frame, while spaced from this block there is a pivot 37 for a lever 38 which has a bifurcated end with a retaining pin 39 pressed through one of the bifurcated fingers by a leaf spring 40. At the other end of this leve-r there is a roller 41 mounted in a slot in the lever by means of a pin 42 which also serves to connect the roller to the head 43 of the plunger 44 which is guided in a bore 45 of the block 34. A spring 46 surrounds the plunger 44 engaging the head 43 and the block 34 and serves to urge the plunger to the right as seen in FIG. 3. An operating lever 47 having handle 48 is pivoted as at 49 between the plates 33 and has a cam surface 50 to engage the roller 41 so as to swing the lever 38 and push the plunger inwardly when thrown to the position shown in FIG. 2, but when swung to the position shown in FIG. 1 will release the plunger to swing the lever 38 and urge the bifurcated end of lever 38 to the left.

A saddle 51 provides a bearing 52 for the arbor 28 of the roll 27 and a bearing 53 for the arbor 31 of the roll 31). This bearing 53 is adjustable by means of the stud 59 and nut 55 for spacing the top rolls different distances. The saddle is comprised of spaced portions with a pin 56 extending between them and is removable as a unit from the bifurcated lever 38 although it may be snapped into the bifurcated lever and held supported thereby when the lever 47 is in release position such as shown in FIG. 2. When it is desired to place the device in operation, it is merely necessary to swing the handle 48 to the position shown in FIG. 1 which will enable the spring to become active upon the lever 38 pressing the top rolls 27 and 30 into engagement with the lower rolls 20 and 23. The distance between the nip of the upper pairs of draft rolls and the lower pairs of draft rolls will be a little greater than the length of staple of yarn which is drawn in the apparatus.

The drive for the bottom rolls is provided from gears at one end of the machine, and I have shown a gear 60 on the end of roll 23 which is substantially twice the size of gear 61 on the end of roll 20, these gears being connected together by an intermediate 62. Thus, a 2 to 1 ratio will be provided in that the roll 20 will operate at substantially twice the surface speed as roll 23, thus providing a 2 to 1 draft of the fibers as they extend between the nips of the lower draft rolls and the top rolls.

The textile fibers to be drafted is designated as 63 and is supplied from roving feed rolls 64 shown as passing through the twister head 14 where false twist is placed in the roving so that this twist will remain in the roving as it enters the draft rolls and passes through them. A draft of 10% will occur between the feed rolls 64 and the rolls 23, 30 and a draft of 2 to 1 of the fibers will occur between the nip of the rolls 23, 30 and the next pair of rolls 20, 27. The yarn is then assembled on core 66 through the guide 67 and around the ring 68 guided by traveler 69.

I claim:

1. In the process of spinning textile fibers, advancing a roving from a card condenser supply source, leveling and elongating by means of a jerking action on the roving between two pairs of rolls while putting into the roving a false twist followed without packaging by a much increased drafting between the more advanced of said pair of rolls and a further advanced pair of delivery rolls and then packaging the yarn.

2. In a textile spinning frame for card condenser roving, feed rolls for roving, means for imparting a leveling and elongating action in the roving comprising a first set of nip rolls and a twister head between said feed and nip rolls for imparting false twist in the roving as drafted, said head having means for imparting a jerking action on the roving, a second set of nip rolls, and means for driving the second set of nip rolls at a surface speed greater than the surface speed of the first set of nip rolls to impart a substantial elongation or draft in the roving.

3. In a textile spinning frame as in claim 2 wherein a weighting means for the nip rolls is common to both sets of nip rolls.

4. In a textile spinning frame as in claim 3 wherein a weighting means for the nip rolls is by means of a spring.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,757,586 5/1930 Owen 575l X 1,973,534 9/1934 Ko-oistra 57-51 X FOREIGN PATENTS 852,115 1/1940 France.

15,076 of 1904 Great Britain. 9,966 of 1914 Great Britain.

310,840 6/1930 Great Britain.

515,672 3/1938 Great Britain.

STANLEY N. GILREATH, Primary Examiner.

MERVIN STEIN, Examiner.

D. E. WATKINS, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN THE PROCESS OF SPINNING TEXTILE FIBERS, ADVANCING A ROVING FROM A CARD CONDENSER SUPPLY SOURCE, LEVELING AND ELONGATING BY MEANS OF A JERKING ACTION ON THE ROVING BETWEEN TWO PAIRS OF ROLLS WHILE PUTTING INTO THE ROVING A FALSE TWIST FOLLOWED WITHOUT PACKAGING BY A 